300 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE ALABAMA RIVER. 



With these, occupying a central position, was the skeleton of a very young- 

 infant which had been buried in anatomical order. All these bones have been kept 

 exactly as found, and now, soaked with glue and coated with shellac to impart 

 solidity, occupy their original position, a certain amount of earth which had entered 

 through a crack having been removed. The arrangement of the bones is well 

 shown in Fig. 7. 



Over Vessel A, inverted, was a circular, undecorated dish of very coarse ware — 

 clay and pounded shell — having a maximum depth of 3 inches and a diameter of 

 13.5 inches. In this dish is a large crack, dating from early times, as is shown by 

 a perforation in either side through which had been passed a cord or sinew to lash 

 the parts together, after the aboriginal fashion. 



On top of the upturned base of the dish (B) were a number of fragments of 

 earthenware which had formed part of another vessel, doubtless put on for addi- 

 tional protection. 



We have here a form of burial new to our work, namely plural burial of 

 skeletons in a single urn. Along the Georgia coast we found urn-burials of single 

 skeletons and urns filled with cremated remains of various individuals. Later in 

 this report we shall see a repetition of this plural form occuring in the aboriginal 

 cemetery at Durand's Bend. 



Burial No. 2. — 2 feet below the surface was the skull of an adult in fragments, 

 as were all crania found unenclosed in this mound. No other bones were in asso- 

 ciation. With the skull was an undecorated vessel with globular body and upright 

 neck. Height, 3.75 inches; diameter of body, 3.5 inches. With this vessel was a 

 diminutive bowl, 1.9 inches in diameter, 1 inch in height. This little toy had 

 incised decoration over the entire exterior surface (Fig. 8). 



Such vessels are usually supposed to have been 

 placed with children. In the skull, which this little 

 bowl accompanied, the wisdom teeth were present. 

 With the other objects was a little bowl 1.7 inches 

 long, 1.5 inches broad, .75 inch deep wrought from 

 a pebble, which, possibly, to a certain extent, had 

 been hollowed out by nature. 



Burial No. 3. — A bunched burial consisting 

 of certain bones of a child, without the skull, lay 

 18 inches below the surface. This burial was sur- 

 mounted by part of a bowl, crushed, from which 



'Matth^.Landingr'CFuliTizeO * ne ™ was missing. 



Burial No. 4. — 13 inches down were parts of 

 skeletons of an adult and of a child, mingled. Alongside was part of an undeco- 

 rated vessel of about one quart capachVv. It will be noted that the canny aborig- 

 ines who built this mound, as in other sections of the country, were sometimes 

 inclined to be quit of tributes to the dead by interment of objects otherwise 

 useless. Still, their gifts to the departed compare favorably with those of the 

 present time. 



Fig. 8.— Earthenware vessel. JVIound at ,1 



